The News

Okay, Mr. Zelda and I arrived at the outpatient surgery clinic right on time. Everything went well. There was a little boy about my Buttons’ age in the lobby, and he stole my heart. I think he knew that I liked watching him, so he performed just for me. I wanted to pick him up but knew that would seem strange. Anyway, when they took me back and I got undressed and on the table, they began the search for a vein. I tried to give them pointers as to where the good ones are, but finally the young girl said, “I don’t want to even try.” So she called the nurse that everyone called mom. A nurse around my age or a little older, I felt like I was in good hands. She searched and searched and I told her that while the procedures are dangerous and all of that, it’s the starting the IVs that stresses me the most. Well, her searching paid off, and she stuck me once, found the vein, and I was hooked up to the fluids and all was well. I tried to give her my children, and she said that was okay, and I said, please, take them, and she said, really no. Then I asked her to marry me, that way, I’d always have a nurse who could start IVs on me, she laughed and Mr. Zelda said where would I fit in, and I said, can you start an IV, and he sadly shook his head and I said, you can be replaced. HA!
Then, yes then, they took me back and I drank this awful stuff, they sprayed my throat with more awful stuff and put a thing in my mouth and then, yes, then they began administering the drugs. First the Valium and then something else and I began to drift off and just felt so good. When I awoke, which is always not fun, I asked if we could do it again, they laughed. But, the ulcers and the inflammation of my stomach lining, not good. There will have to be surgery or I will perforate. That sounds bad. They biopsied the areas, and gave me a medicine that will get rid of the pain, which I kept telling him I don’t have pain, I have nausea, and a little cramping, that’s all. He also said to avoid stress and alcohol. How do I do that? The alcohol, well that's no problem, but the stress, that's my middle name, Zelda Stress Something. So, now we are looking at another surgery over spring break. That really sucks. So, while the stomach problems will be gone, and the risk of a perforation will be gone too, I am not so sure how much of my stomach piece they will remove. He says only a small section, very small, and it shouldn’t mess with my digestion, or so he says. They will also take a small piece of my colon. So, while he says it doesn’t look like cancer, that it is all ulcers, caused probably from taking so many antibiotics over the last two years, the bad news is that these kinds of ulcers don’t respond to medicine or diet, they have to be cut out. Yikes! So that is where I am and what I am looking at. On the bright side, he thinks he can do all of this through laser and laparoscopic surgery, and I should be okay in six weeks, but can go back to school in a week. So, it all works out, right?